ICC World Cup 2019
Part 28 - 2003 Best World cup season ever played
Read previous post of this blog series. Please check the below links
After 1999 world cup Australia becomes too much strong. They became unbeatable around the world. Till last batsmen they will fight for the win. They came as unbeatable in ODI's as well as in test matches too. Regular captain Steve Waugh retired and Ricky Ponting was appointed as the captain of Australian team. Their line up is like Mathew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martin, Symonds, Katich, Bevan, Brad Hogg, Bret lee, Harvey, Mcgrath, Gillespie, Andy Bichel, Bracken, Lehmann, Shane Warne and goes on. Australia looks much stronger as like West Indies in 70's. No other teams looks like strong to give tough to them.
First time in cricket history an ICC big tournament held at African soil. South Africa hosts the world cup 2003 along with Zimbabwe, Namibia and Kenya. Thirteen teams around the world fight for the final match against Aussie. Yes, before the start of tournament itself everyone predicted the win of Aussie. But among the top four other 3 teams are unpredictable. India and Srilanka came as 2nd and 3rd respectively. But the fourth team, no one ever had a dream like that, even that teams members also ever imagined that. Yes, its Kenya. Kenya finished as fourth in 2003 world cup with a loss in semi finals. Kenya created a history, they became the first ever non test playing nation to reach semi. Before the start of tournament Aussie's spinner Shane Warne caught red handed after using banned steroids via pills and faced a ban.
Participated Countries:
Fourteen teams participated in the tournament. They were equally divided into to Pool A and B. Top three from each pool will play at Super Six stage. Each team has to play with remaining teams from other pool. It means 3 matches for each team. Then top four will qualify for semi.
Pool A:
India, Australia, Pakistan, Namibia, Netherland, Zimbabwe and England
Pool B:
Srilanka, South Africa, West Indies, New Zeland, Kenya, Canda and Bangladesh
Pool B looks much easier than pool A. Everyone expected all the three minnows from pool B will finish at bottom of the table. The hosts South Africa looks pretty much confident in lifting the world cup. Because they had such a strong line up which is enough to challenge Australia. From pool A Aus, Pak, Eng and Zim looks stronger while India lost series against West Indies at their home just before the world cup. After the match fixing issue in 1999, they lost senior Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja and many players. Sachin resigned his captaincy and it went to another skilled opener Sourav Ganguly. Bengal Tiger made lot of changes in team, he added many youngsters in team and laid a foundation for current strong Indian team. He only put forwarded MS Dhoni name during selection later the world cup.
League Round:
As like we mentioned earlier Australia won all the 6 matches and finished as top from Pool A. They thrashed kiddo Namibia by packing them for just 45 runs. Not only Namibia, they kicked India and Netherland also for 121 runs and 122 runs respectively.Glenn Mcgrath took 7 wickets for 15 runs in a match against Namibia. India finished as second with 5 wins except a loss against Australia. At first they struggled alot in south african soil against netherland and won somehow. In second match they completely surrendered to Australia. Because of that loss they faced many negative comments from all over the world. But the team completely changed after than and won Zimbabwe, Namibia easily. They won easily against England with the help of Ashih Nehra's 6/23 which is the best bowling by an Indian player in world cups till today. Last match they beat their rivals pakistan and keep the record of not losing against pak in world cups. Sachin Tendulkar played one of the best ever knock in world cups. He got out for 98 runs but didnt play his usual game. Its like a Sehwagh innings from Sachin.
Zimbabwe qualified as third team from Pool A with 3 wins. Even England also had 3 wins , but Zimbabwe got points from one abandoned match. More over England denied to play against Zimbabwe at their home which results to disqualify for Super Six. Strong Pakistan only had two wins both against Namibia and Netherland. Namibia lost all matches and finished at bottom. With one against Namibia, Nehtherland finished second from bottom.
In case of Pool B its quite different. Strongest hosts South Africa gave a surprise to fans by going home with league round. In the very first match itself they lost to West Indies. At last league against Srilanka, once again rain played and SA lost the match by miscalculating the required runs. West Indies won 3 matches against Kenya, South Africa and Canada. But the match against Bangladesh was washed out and they got only half points from that match. Bangladesh lost all the matches and Canada make a surprise win against Bangladesh. Srilanka and New Zealand finished as first and third from Pool B. But the second spot was clinched by Kenya, the non test playing nation beat Canada and Bangladesh. Kenya gave big surprise to Srilanka and beat them by 53 runs. Srilanka failed to chase the 211 runs and went all out for 157 runs.Kenya's Obuya took 5/24 in that match. New zealand gave walkover to Kenya by denying to play against them at Kenya.
Canada registered the smallest ever team score against Sri lanka in this world cup. They went all out for 36 runs from 18.4 overs. It means the entire team faced only 110 balls. None of the Canadian batsmen scored double digit.
Super Six:
At the end of Super six stage asusual Australia won all the three matches and finished at top. India beat Srilanka, New Zealand and Kenya in super six finished next to Australia. Sourav Ganguly's superb century against Kenya saved India from losing against them. Srilanka, Kenya and New Zealand won 1 match each. But with the help of net runrate and win at league round Kenya finished at third and Srilanka at fourth. New Zealand eliminated from world cup just because they gave walkover win to Kenya at group stage. Zimbabwe left the tournament with zero win at super six.
Semi Finals:
Top and fourth team, Australia faced Srilanka in the first semi final. Australia struggled against Srilankan bowling attack and scored only 212 runs for 7 wickets. Hitter Symonds alone stand till end and scored 91 runs, he played out of his natural game in much needed time. But Australia did a good job in bowling which they failed to did during batting. Sri lanka went crushed for 123/7 then rain interrupted and Australia won the match by DL method.
In second semi once again India faced Kenya. As like in super six stage, once again the skipper Sourav Ganguly scored century against them along with Sachin's 83 runs. But this Kenya didnt threaten them and went all out for 179 runs. Indian pacers Zaheer khan and Srinat bowled very consistent and gave only 25 runs from 16 overs. Their economy was like 1.50
Finals:
After 20 years India played finals and for Australia its three in a row. 100Crore people waiting for that moment to Sourav lift the trophy. But Ricky Ponting threw a mountain on their heads and mind. After toss India decided to bowl first, that became a big mistake more than that Ganguly dropped Kumble from XI and add a additional batsman Mongia. Entire world know Australia will struggle against spinner. Dont know why Ganguly didnt gave a chance to their best spinner. Australia scored a mammoth of 359 runs at finals with Ponting's 140 not out and Martyn 88* runs. Aussie lost only two wickets that too at Harbhajan's spell. This time Ganguly understand the importance of spinner against Aussie. But its too late.
India lost Sachin earlier at Mc Grath speed. Sehwagh struggled a lot from one side and didnt get support from other side. Ganguly, Yuvraj and Dravid scored a bit partnership with him. India went all out for 234 runs and lost the trophy. Australia beat India by a biggest margin of 125 runs and became world champions for third time. They equalled one more history like defending title next to West Indies.
Most Runs: Sachin Tendulkar (Ind) with 673 runs
Sourav Ganguly (Ind) with 465 runs
Most Wickets: Chaminda Vaas (SL) with 23 wickets
Brett Lee (Aus) with 22 wickets
Little Master Sachin Tendulkar scored 673 runs in this tournament and became the highest run scorer of this tournament. Sachin was awarded with a Golden Bat at the end. He scored 1 century and 6 half centuries. With a century in this tournament Sachin equals the record of Mark Waugh most century by batsman in world cup.
Interesting Moments:
1. Gentleman Gilchrist
During semi final match against Sri lanka, Gilchrist was given out by Umpire wrongly like caught behind by Sangakkara. But later umpire realised it is not out. But Gilchrist gave respect to umpire's decision and went pavilion. This became best gentlemen act in world cup history.
2. Ganguly's Triple Ton:
Till 1999 world cup only two centuries were scored by a batsman in single tournament. But in 2003, Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly hit three centuries as a captain and become the most century scorer in single world cup. Sourav shares most number of centuries in world cups (4) along with Sachin and Mark Wuagh. After 12 years the record was broken by Kumar Sangakkara in 2015 with 4 centuries in a tournament.
3. Spring Bat & rematch:
Some time at street cricket we used to thought like if he bat with MRF bat we can score many runs as like Sachin. We kept confident on the bat not on us. Like that a rumour came like Ricky Ponting had spring in his bat at the time of playing finals. Because of that only he scored century and the top comment is " Because of this ICC planning to conduct a rematch for world cup finals"
Want to know the benefits of the keto diet? The Ketogenic diet refers to a form of dieting where high fats, adequate.
ReplyDeleteoxo salad spinner